Everyday Systems

larisa0001

As someone who actually majored in biomechanics, I'd be very wary of changing anything about the biomechanics of one's gait in order to make it less efficient - it sounds like a recipe for injuring oneself. Those winged shoes that make you change your gait made me wince.

larisa0001

A longer-term report on the viability of this mod: I love it. Love it love it love it. It feels effortless, my arms and shoulders are looking better than they've ever looked in years, and I'm getting strong. Last week I did two pullups with no prior training. And I think I'm getting maybe 5 minutes ...

larisa0001

I've been crazy busy lately, and even 14 minutes is hard to find. Here's what I'm doing instead - every hour on the hour, I get up and do 10 reps of a Shovelglove exercise and 10 bodyweight squats. Sometimes I use dumbbells instead or do step-ups or deadlifts instead of squats. I try to vary things ...

larisa0001

I've come to realize that I spend way too much time online reading trash, rather than offline reading good books. I want to read more classics and fewer Buzzfeed articles. However, since I use Facebook and other online things as a social outlet, I'm unwilling to give it up altogether. This seems to ...

larisa0001

What I do is not "pure" Shovelglove - I alternate my Shovelglove exercises with kettlebell exercises, and do 1 minute of yoga at 7 minutes and at 14 minutes. I think that the kettlebell stuff is very good for cardio (as well as for legs and back strength), and the yoga takes care of flexibility. Oh ...

larisa0001

As soon as it's ready, I'll let you know - heck, if you let me know your mailing address, I'll send you a copy.

larisa0001

Thanks! And seriously - the best way to beat clutter is just to think of putting a thing away as part of the activity. You're not "done" until you put it away. If you set up a really really strict rule, with no exceptions, ever, your subconscious will "get it" soon enough.

If you think about it ...

larisa0001

I thought I would write this, because it's been almost 10 months since I started practicing my various Everyday Systems and I wanted to publicly thank Reinhard for putting this information out there.

For as long as I can remember, I thought of myself as a loser, lacking in willpower, someone who ...

larisa0001

By the way, when I did a harder workout (1 hour of weights at a gym), I used a different "system" that I think is simpler - every other day, without fail. I was in school at the time, so the weekday/weekend division wasn't very meaningful to me, and this way the only question I had to ask myself was ...

larisa0001

I've been doing the "14 minutes of anything" - I tend to get overenthusiastic about weight training and get injured, and I'm trying to avoid that now. Shovelglove is very hard on the hands, and my hands are not in the best of condition, so I'm being careful. I intersperse my Shovelgloving with some ...

larisa0001

I also do kettlebells as well as Shovelglove; I keep a kettlebell in my office at work, and do a few swings and other exercises in my office during the day, and then do the Shovelglove at night after I come home. I think the two complement each other very nicely.

I agree about the two ...

larisa0001

I walk to work too, and it's about a 15-minute walk for me. I love my commute - I get to walk through a beautiful neighborhood full of gardens and pretty flowers every day. When I was picking a place to live, I drew a circle with a one-mile radius around my workplace and only considered homes within ...

larisa0001

An update: once an hour was, in fact, too much. I tweaked my shoulder and had to take a couple of months off from kettlebelling (and most other exercise). Now I'm getting back into it, but being more cautious. For the first couple of weeks, I only did two "mini-workouts" a day. Now, I'm up to three ...

larisa0001

Another construct that I have generalized from No-S I call "Five of Seven" (which sounds like a Borg name from Star Trek, and I'm geeky enough to be amused by that). Basically, that's the target to which I hold myself accountable for any new habit - five days out of seven. I don't mandate whether ...

larisa0001

Here's a beta-microsystem to get in some more frequent movement throughout the day without adding much memory burden.

It's [somewhat too] evocatively named: P-ups.

Every time you go to the bathroom, bang out 21 pushups (or 5 pull-ups, if you have a bar available). Gets the blood flowing on a ...

larisa0001

I also do kettlebells as well as Shovelglove; I keep a kettlebell in my office at work, and do a few swings and other exercises in my office during the day, and then do the Shovelglove at night after I come home. I think the two complement each other very nicely.

larisa0001

Your post reminded me of a piece of advice I read in an exercise book back in the seventies. " Walk the dog, even if you don't have a dog."
Too bad I didn't take the advice back then.[/list]

I've often thought of getting myself one of these :

http://www.nightmarefactory.com/cgi-bin/shopper ...

larisa0001

It certainly can't hurt. The last few years I've read and heard a lot about how getting 30 mins. a day of excersize can be done in spurts throughout the day is just as effective as all at once. It should at least help to clear your mind and get some oxygen to your brain. If nothing else, your work ...

larisa0001

I've been working crazy 80-hour weeks for the past couple of months. Needless to say, my exercise routine went by the wayside. I've been very good about my piano-related Everyday System (2 hours a day, 6 days a week, with certain exceptions) - and it took all my willpower to do my two hours of piano ...

larisa0001

I also like the idea of S-days, but I've made a significant tweak to it. It seems to work for me for my exercise routine (1 hour a day) and for my piano practice routine (2 hours a day). Basically, my rule is that I get to take one day off per week. Does not matter when, whether it's a weekend or a ...

larisa0001

Well, I fell off the wagon. Fell off it totally and completely. If this were an AA report, I'd be talking about binge-drinking and rolling in the gutter. As it is, here is a description of the damage:

Last Friday, I had some bad sushi. The resulting case of food poisoning consumed all of Friday and ...

larisa0001

I actually rather like bananas, and one of my breakfast alternatives is coffee and a banana. I find that I'm never all that hungry in the morning, so I generally have a very light breakfast. Plus, bananas are good for you - high in potassium and all that stuff.

larisa0001

Marygrace, this is what I've been tracking, insofar as I'm tracking anything at all. My pants do appear to be getting looser, and my muscles are more visible. My weight is still hovering around the 130 mark, but I'm not sure I care, considering the other improvements.

larisa0001

This is kinda what I'm doing as well - I've mostly cut out bread on N-days, as well as any other baked goods. It's worked well for me - I've already lost some weight, and also noticed that my skin looks a lot better now. I've never had good skin, so this is a pleasant discovery to make, and very ...

larisa0001

LA_Loser, I did look at Reinhard's "Weekend Luddite" system, but mine is kinda the opposite - I'm a "weekday Luddite". I give myself permission to surf all I want on weekends*, but on weekdays, the only websites I allow myself to go to are the ones I need to check my email or the ones I need for ...

larisa0001

A week's worth of check-ins, because one of the "S" activities I am now banning on weekdays is "slacking" - defined as surfing the web for any reason except for checking email or anything required for studying. I tend to treat websurfing, and reading fiction, as addictive activities that cause me to ...

larisa0001

Today was an S-day, though I ended it at sunset (since I started my S-days on Friday night). No trouble with it, though I was eating way too many sweet things that I knew I wouldn't be able to have once the week started. Still, I don't think I overindulged too horribly. No exercise today, because I ...

larisa0001

Ah well. Returning to no-S. It did not stick, last time around, as the long silence appears to indicate. I hope it sticks better now.

I have just completed a week on the diet. It was hard going; I think I might need to make some adjustments. For example, I am not sure how useful the "no snacks ...

larisa0001

I've also only got 5 lbs. to lose - "vanity weight". But my problem is kinda the opposite - I have never dieted. Ever. I love food, I love to eat, and I'm not at all used to restricting my intake in any way at all. Even something as mild as no-S is hard for me to get used to. I eat fairly healthy ...

larisa0001

Thanks! I'm kinda new to this whole dieting thing, so still trying to figure things out. Today, I think I had things slightly better calibrated:

meal 1: coffee and a turkey sandwich
meal 2: 2 fried eggs, cherry tomatoes, bread, some fresh blackberries, an apple (I like fresh fruit...)
meal 3: more ...

larisa0001

Thanks. I guess my definition of "ideal weight" is not very medically sound. I am currently at 130 lbs. - well within "normal weight". But this is 5 lbs. more than I weighed before this summer, and I'd like to get rid of those 5 lbs., especially since they appear to be 5 lbs. of fat rather than ...

larisa0001

I started on no-S again this week (expanding circumference and shrinking clothing... alas) Today, I had the following meals:

1 banana in the morning
coffee and two Vietnamese spring rolls at noon
plateful of beef+lentil+carrot+barley+mushroom stew, a grapefruit, and an apple at about 5
and then I ...

larisa0001

Yeah, I have a niece who became a vegan/vegetarian on her own when she was like 4 or 5 and is now almost 18 and that is just the way she is! Her sister is definitely not a vegetarian...

Some people do need to be a vegetarian. Their body chemistry just doesn't need or like the meat. It is usually ...

larisa0001

I've been thinking along the same lines, after doing a summer internship at a law firm while also playing the piano on a regular basis (as in, out-of-town performances). It was crazy intense, and gave me a different insight into simplifying my life.

Before, I looked at "simplifying my life" as ...

larisa0001

I'm trying to get my sleep schedule realigned, too. My class schedule this semester is very irregular - sometimes class starts at 10:30am and sometimes at 1pm - and I have a volunteer thing to do at 6:30am on Saturdays. As a result, my internal clock is all over the place, and I've decided that if I ...

larisa0001

I had a bit of a failure with the no-S diet. Some creme brulee was involved. I forgot that today was Monday.

As far as exercise goes (and really, as far as everything goes), I'm declaring today an "S as in sick" day. I'm running a fever, I've got a horrible headache, and the general health and ...

larisa0001

Another S-day, and a pretty indulgent one. No snacks, but both sweets and seconds.

An S-day as far as piano and exercise are concerned. The to-do list for today is done, though. (it wasn't a very long one - just two items - but I got both of them done)

I've decided that I will only have one S-day ...

larisa0001

Actually, yesterday's "failure" was actually not a failure - I did get everything done on the list. The trick to these lists, I think, is to keep the tasks small enough to really be bite-sized pieces. Also, I am amazingly productive late at night - much more so than during the day.

Diet-wise, today ...

larisa0001

After spending the day thinking about an everyday system for Getting Stuff Done, I decided to go with the simple expedient - in the morning, I write down a to-do list for that day. I will keep track of when I have actually accomplished all the items on my list.

Today's list had 4 items. Of those ...

larisa0001

So, the no-S thing is still going well. No sweets today; breakfast included raspberries and tea with bread and cheese and lunch was coffee and a sandwich (non-sweet). I am baking pirozhki tonight, but they're not really sweet - they're basically bread rolls with a cabbage filling. Dinner will be ...

larisa0001

I use a local Philadelphia car-sharing system, and I love it. Lots more convenient than actually owning a car - if you don't drive a whole lot. I only need a car about once a month, so it works out great for me. And I get to drive a shiny new Prius.

larisa0001

I used to keep track of my walking by figuring out how much money I was saving on cab fare or bus fare, and adding that to my "temptation account" - to be spent in a totally frivolous manner. I should really resume doing that; it was great at getting me to walk instead of being lazy and taking the ...

larisa0001

I'm horribly bad at keeping logs of any kind, but I might as well try. I'm trying to do several things at the same time, so I'll be tracking all of them here.

1) Losing weight. I weighed in at 130 lbs. last week. I need to weigh between 5 and 10 lbs. less than that. To accomplish that, I'm doing ...

larisa0001

This is my second attempt at this post. The first kind of went off the rails and became rambling and strange, so I'll save the explanations and just ask the question I have in mind:

If you could make any lifestyle changes you wanted, what would you change?

Assume automatic success and no regrets ...

larisa0001

How funny that I was boasting about not being tempted by Halloween candy last year.

This year, it's an S-day.

It's my son's birthday as well as Halloween. I think we had the party close enough to his b'day last year that we didn't bother with cake on the actual day... this year we're having cake ...

larisa0001

I'm saving quite a bit on coffeeshop pastries and mocha latte concoctions. That was really my only "S" - sweets.

Oh - and I lost 2 lbs. already. This no-S thing really does work.

larisa0001

Of course people have different metabolic rates. athlete vs. couch potato etc. That is not what I wrote. But two people with the same metabolic rate that eat the same amount of food and the same exercise are not going to be 100 pounds apart. Fat people fool themselves all the time about how much ...

larisa0001

Mm... pleasure is a principle, but not the only one. So is health. When I eat decently, I have more energy for other aspects of my life.

Moderation is a path to both. It sounds contradictory, but moderation can lead to greater pleasure than total indulgence. And it's better for you as well ...

larisa0001

Metabolism issues are way overrated, mostly because they seem to provide:

1) a good excuse to not do anything
2) a magic bullet solution that does not involved will power if your metabolism can somehow be tricked.

Self-deception regarding food intake is a far bigger problem. By forcing you to ...

larisa0001

Welcome (to no-s) Larissa!

Sorry about your injuries... I guess vertical urban ranger is out of the question for now?

Reinhard

For now, alas, I'm operating under the assumption that it is. I'll try it again after resting for a while and see if it goes any better.

I'm still trying to figure out ...

larisa0001

I just weighed myself at the gym last night. Either the scale is broken, or I'm 10 lbs. heavier than I should be. And the annoying thing is that I can't exercise; I have managed to injure both my right wrist and my right knee, which makes both cardiovascular and weight-bearing exercise pretty much ...

larisa0001

You're welcome to come any time.

larisa0001

Oy; I really do think I overdid it with that Shovelglove session, alas (I was doing "flip the lever" and I really should not have been). Haven't been able to get back to the sledgehammer all week, my wrists are so sore. Can't blame anyone for it - my own stupid fault.

Hoping that after a week's ...

larisa0001

I was just wondering, in general, what "everyday systems" people have come up with that deal with finances. I find that I've been using one all along and never knew that it qualified as an everyday system. So - are there any others out there?

I'd be interested to know what your business is. I was ...

larisa0001

I had a very disturbing phone call the other day; someone who upset me considerably and made me very angry (what is it about people who don't take "no" for an answer? Even after it's repeated for 20 minutes?). My Shovelglove session that evening was very martially oriented. Not that I know anything ...

larisa0001

I think the problem is that I lack the wrist strength to prevent the hammer from swinging and hitting me in the back. Hoping that that will get fixed with more Shovelgloving.

larisa0001

I have carpeting, and I'm generally pretty careful (and do not have any children or pets underfoot) - so I thought i could get away with an unwrapped hammer. I generally can - but the "hoist the sack" thing does get pretty uncomfortable.

larisa0001

I keep banging myself in the back with the hammer when I do that. I guess I should just wrap it up in a sweater or something.

And ragtime really doesn't work as Shovelgloving music, alas. I love it, but for Shovelgloving, I think that something more serious is indicated. I wish I had my recording ...

larisa0001

I've been doing an every-other-day sort of thing with the Shovelglove; that's what I normally do for weight training exercise, and I find that it works well for me - this way I don't need to keep track of what day of the week it is. So last night, I picked up the Shovelglove again. Yipes. This ...

larisa0001

I think I've hit the 21 day mark this year. I haven't used the elevator, or public transit, or a cab, since the new semester started - except for things like job interviews and dress-up occasions (I don't want to climb stairs in high heels - that can't possibly be good for you).

I've got a ...

larisa0001

OK, it's the next morning and I've barely managed to crawl up to the computer. Yipes. This is some seriously intense stuff. My biceps are falling off, as are my deltoids and my back muscles. And I only did 7 minutes to start with (mostly because of paranoia about my wrists than anything else)

Alas ...

larisa0001

I kept being unable to make the time to actually go to the hardware store and get one, so I finally ordered one online. It arrived today. I ordered the 8-lb hammer, and I'm somewhat regretting it now - I should have gone with a 6-pounder. Still, I'm hoping that my muscles adapt to it, and I might go ...

larisa0001

Today, I ran up to the 10th floor. When I started, I could only run up to the 5th floor before slowing to a walk. It's working...

LM

larisa0001

I'm really amazed at how well it's working. I was trying to do some kind of exercise in my room - calisthenics and such - but it was a hassle to make myself do them (and I do not own a sledgehammer, alas); and then I had this epiphany.

As for music - well, I do have a CD out:

www.cdbaby.com ...

larisa0001

One phrase: "If you can't afford a gym, you can't afford to take the elevator".

I live on the 13th floor.

I've been getting lots and lots of cardiovascular exercise lately...

larisa0001

I wish I could do Hindu squats... <sigh> Stupid knee.

larisa0001

Has anyone tried to make a "shovelglove" out of something other than a sledgehammer, and what were the results? I've got a handle of about the right length - about a yard long - but I'm not sure what heavy object I can affix to it and how it is to be affixed. Can someone suggest something? I'd like ...

larisa0001

I've been struggling with a financial system myself; I'm back in school and on a very strict budget, so $20/day is beyond my limit. Haven't yet found a workable system that will keep my spending in check while still allowing me a cup of coffee every so often. Problem is, the "every so often" has a ...

larisa0001

I've been having fairly good success with setting my alarm for 7:30 and getting up at 8; this way, I get 1/2 hour to read in bed in the morning. Admittedly, sometimes I let things slide till 8:05, but not usually later than that.

larisa0001

I'm not really sure how many calories this is, but I know that even walking, I'm still about ready to collapse by the time I get to the 13th floor. Today, I did it with a full backpack (about 30 lbs.) and carrying a package; yipes.

The vertical urban rangering in my case is partially motivated by ...

larisa0001

I'm making that change myself (for financial reasons - I'm a starving student now). Haven't come up with a good rule yet; but here's what I've got so far:

- when eating alone, no purchased meal should exceed $2 in price. This covers the possibility that I may be out wandering somewhere, and need to ...

larisa0001

Well... since you asked.... <blushing wildly> Here goes:

www.geocities.com/ragtimelarisa/music.html

This was recorded in my living room, so I apologize in advance for the sound quality.

LM

larisa0001

I have recently moved to Philadelphia to go back to school, and found myself an urban ranger by default; I do not own a car and walk everywhere. I am rather enjoying this; it's a great way to get exercise and to be environmentally conscious and all that.

Is anyone here extending "urban rangering ...

larisa0001

It is a relatively ancient post - and what worked for me (sorry Reinhart!) was not any kind of "everyday system", but a new challenge. In the past 2 years, I started getting interested in ragtime piano music - joined a ragtime society, started playing it a lot, and eventually, began to write my own ...

larisa0001

Hi Larisa,

You're right, there is an element of "penny wise..." about Latte factor. Besides potentially misdirecting your energies from bigger more important issues, there's a self righteous aesthetic selfishness about it, as if denying yourself all pleasure for the sake of your bank account were ...

larisa0001

Reinhard, I love your comment, "Poke around the net. Everybody's local now."

Awesome, and so true!

It really is. Especially when I think about my small business - I've very consciously set it up so that it would not matter where I am, physically. My email address is the same and so is my cell ...

larisa0001

And now that I think about it, when I was a piano accompanist at a ballet school, I had no trouble improvising dance music for 1.5 hours at a time, twice a week. It was all different; I had to make it fit the dancers' movements, and suit the mood of the dance, etc etc etc. Somehow, "inspiration" or ...

larisa0001

Hey Larissa, Navin and Sandie :)
Thank you friends, for your recent posts...
I am feeling too lesuired and lethargic to respond yet... I will though, when the caffeine, inspiration and the right words come to my feeble morning brain. Larissa, are you new? If so welcome and enjoy our group! Would ...

larisa0001

Hi Larisa,

Tell us more about your system!

I haven't come up with much financially myself, but one I'm impressed with that someone else came up with (David Bach in the Automatic Millionaire, which I have to confess I haven't actually read), and you may have heard of, is the "Latte factor ...

larisa0001

I apologize for besieging this board with questions, but I'm absolutely delighted that someone out there is also thinking the way I do about "everyday systems" - and not only thinking this way, but creating a website for it. I've been thinking this way all my life, but I always thought I was the ...

larisa0001

I was just wondering, in general, what "everyday systems" people have come up with that deal with finances. I find that I've been using one all along and never knew that it qualified as an everyday system. So - are there any others out there?

LM

larisa0001

Here's the system I used for managing spending, which enabled me to pay back about $16,000 worth of credit card debt while unemployed. Alas, I do not have a fancy name for it, but I know it works. It worked for me.

a) Record every penny you spend or earn. Know exactly how much you've got in the ...

Everyday Systems

Search found 82 matches

A different time schedule for Shovelglove

"Read More" everyday system?

An (almost) 10-month report and thank you

Re: Walk the dog

A different exercise-related everyday system

OK, did I fail?

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The psychological benefits of Shovelglove...

My shovelglove arrived!

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My newest exercise-related "everyday system".

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true...

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Creative work "everyday system"?

Financial Everyday Systems

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